


You Get Used To It After A While

by orphan_account



Series: It Could Kill You After A While [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Violence, i dont know what else to tag it as, i guess i'll add tags as i go, psychostriders au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-04-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 23:24:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 11,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is John Egbert and you don’t really know what’s happening right now. You’d say you’re scared but you’re more than used to being kidnapped by this age. Your dad is a very successful business man and as such you’re always a target for kidnappings and held for ransom. You’d say you’re slightly concerned though, usually they would have rescued you by now.</p><p>PsychoStriders AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> wow this is my first fic and i dont know but yes thank you for reading continue on  
> i couldnt even think of what to call it so the title is just kind of yeah

Your name is John Egbert and you don’t really know what’s happening right now. You’d say you’re scared but you’re more than used to being kidnapped by this age. Your dad is a very successful business man and as such you’re always a target for kidnappings and held for ransom. You’d say you’re slightly concerned though, usually they would have rescued you by now.

All you know right now is that you’re in a moving vehicle with at least two men. You’re blindfolded and gagged. Not like you really need the gag. You know enough to keep quiet. More often than not kidnappers are violent and ill tempered. You have rope around your wrists and ankles. If you had to guess you’d say you were in one of those white work vans you see in the city. But the back of this one was empty. It was just you sitting back there.

“No one’s comin’ to rescue you kid.” The first man says. “You don’t need to scare him, Bro.” This one sounds younger, your age, even. “I’m just tellin’ him the truth, Dave. Everyone thinks you’re dead.” Your stomach drops and you start to worry. There’s no way these people could have actually pulled off something like that, could they? Even if they did nobody would believe it, right? You start to lose your certainty. To say you were scared now would be accurate.

You end up falling asleep after a while. You’re not sure how you can just fall asleep in a vehicle with two kidnappers. But when you wake up you’re not moving anymore. You’re not in the van anymore. You’re not sure where you are. You try to sit up but you can’t quite get there. Then you feel someone’s hands on you and you almost scream. The hands help you up to a sitting position. Next the hands take off your blindfold. You try to adjust to the light but you really can’t see anything without your glasses. Next thing you know they’re on your face. You look at the captor that has helped you sit up and notice that, wow, he actually is about your age. He has bleach blonde hair and is wearing shades. You can’t see why he’s wearing shades when it’s already so dark in here.

“I’m gonna take the gag out of your mouth, but you have to promise not to scream.” You think his name is Dave, tells you. You nod, and he takes it out of your mouth. You were going to scream, you really were, until that is, you saw the man you assumed to be Bro standing in the doorway with a bat. Instead you just keep quiet, opting to only speak when spoken to.

“Smart kid.” Bro smirks and stalks off to another room somewhere. You look at Dave expectantly. You’d like to know what you’re doing here.

“We were supposed to kill you, but I convinced bro not to. I told him I’d take care of you. See I’ve been watching you, and I decided I liked you. But then you showed up on our list. I guess your daddy there got himself in a twist and someone wanted to show him what happens and hired us to kill you. So we faked your death.” He tells you and you don’t know how to feel. Bro was telling you the truth. They all thought you were dead. “Hey, don’t cry. It’s okay.” Dave reaches for you and you flinch away from him. “Fine.” He gets up and walks out the door. You hear the door lock. You maneuver yourself to sit in the far corner of the room.

You were sitting in pitch black. There were no windows, no closets, just a room with four walls and a door. You cry yourself to sleep.

When you wake up you’re laying on a mattress. You’re untied, but shackles replace your ropes. The chains are fairly long, maybe in between three and four feet. For easier movement you guess. You sit up, and you’re wearing a collar. You are wearing a collar. A collar. You’re about to take it off because really, a collar, when the door flies open to reveal a terrifying looking Bro. He’s wearing a wide toothy grin. He stalks over to you and pulls you to your feet by the collar. You wince but try not to make any noise. He’s about a head taller than you. You won’t lose to this guy. You don’t know why this suddenly became a competition, but it did.

“You keep that thing on, pet.”He holds up a little black remote looking thing and you suddenly realize this isn’t a normal collar. It’s a shock collar. He pushes you back and lets go and you stumble a little before regaining your footing. You stare at him, glare, almost, daring him to do it.

And he does. And you fall to your knees, but you’re determined to not make a sound. If you do he wins.

“This is what happens if you’re a bad pet. Got it?” You don’t acknowledge him; you just stare at his boots. Combat boots, white pants, black tee shirt. He starts to get impatient, and kicks you. You try not to react but you do, you hold your stomach and gasp for air. You haven’t made a sound though. You haven’t lost yet.

“You’ll speak when spoken to.” He shocks you. It isn’t as bad as the first one, but it’s close. You won’t give in. He kicks you again. You choke back the cry that threatens to come out. You’re lying on the floor. You don’t know what to do. You’re quickly finding out that you are probably going to be safer with Dave. He didn’t lay a finger on you. But you don’t trust that too much, you don’t know him. He could be just as bad as bro. For all you know he could be worse.

Bro grabs you by the collar again and stands you up. It’s a bit difficult to stand up, and you can feel bruises forming. But he doesn’t let up. You look him right in the ridiculous looking shades he’s wearing. They’re like pointy anime shades. And you spit at him. Huge mistake.

He throws you down to the floor. Your head cracks against the floor as he shocks you and you fight to keep consciousness. You cry out, and then you start crying. He won. He gives you a Cheshire smile and he knows he won too. You lay on the floor; you don’t plan on losing again. You won’t lose yourself here. He grabs a chain you didn’t see him walk in with and attaches it to the collar. A leash. He hooks the other end to a ring on the wall you couldn’t see because there was no light. He leaves you there on the floor quietly crying and locks the door again. You fall asleep again and wake up in the same place on the floor. It’s hot here, but the floor is cold under you. It’s smooth and you assume it’s some type of tile. You move to find the wall. The wall feels like cement. You move to the closest corner of the room you can find and pull your knees to your chest and put your head down on your arms. It smells bad here. It smells metallic, and rotting, and it isn’t a far jump to guess it’s bodies rotting.


	2. Chapter 2

You don’t know how long you’re sitting there for when Dave comes in the room and sits about 3 feet from you.

“Bro’s just an asshole like that. I can’t do anything about it.” He starts “Are you okay? Do you still hurt anywhere? I can give you painkillers. Are you hungry?” you don’t say anything and just kind of fall over onto your side on the floor. He crawls into your line of sight and reaches for you. You flinch away and accidentally smack your head off the wall behind you. He pulls his hand back then reaches forward again. You shut your eyes tightly, bracing yourself. You don’t allow yourself to relax when he only rubs the spot where you hit your head. You think he’s trying to be soothing but it isn’t exactly working. He suddenly gets up and leaves. You open your eyes to look out the door. He comes back with an ice pack and pulls you up to a sitting position. He doesn’t do it forcefully but you still won’t allow yourself to let your guard down. He holds the ice pack to your head and you just sit there, completely unsure of what to do.

You start laughing, but it’s almost hysterical, and then you start crying, you sob hard and you start coughing. You immediately try to quiet yourself when you remember bro is likely lurking around the corner waiting for you to fuck up.

Dave just looks at you, at least you think he looks at you. He wears shades too, but they’re not as ridiculous looking. They’re just aviators.

“Do you want to go for a walk around the apartment?” he asks, and you just look at him, you don’t know how you should answer. When you don’t give him an answer you get a shock and you yelp. Bro’s earlier lesson of you-will-speak-when-spoken-to comes flashing back and you mumble an okay. Dave smiles and stands, unhooking you from the wall and helping you to your feet, ice pack forgotten on the floor. He’s taller than you too, by about four or five inches. He holds the leash and guides you out the room door. It’s bright and you flinch, and try to get your eyes to adjust. Your eyes adjust and you see that wow its really is just an apartment. He takes you into the kitchen living room area and asks if you want to eat something. You just nod and he takes you over to the couch and tells you to stay put and you do because where do you have to go? So you sit on the couch and wait for Dave to come back with whatever he’s making. He comes back with sandwiches and you only eat half of yours because you start feeling uneasy. You say thank you to him and avoid a possible shock for not eating all of it. He turns on the TV and you both sit there watching whatever happens to be on. You start to get tired and your head bobs as you fight sleep. You end up falling asleep and when you wake up your head is resting on Dave’s shoulder and you jerk up to a sitting position. You moved too fast and your head spins. You bring a hand to your head and blink hard to slow down. Dave turns to you and puts his hand on your forehead. Your eyes shoot open and you look up at him.

“You feel warm.” He says. “It’s hot here.” You reply. You almost say it sarcastically but you stop yourself. Dave gets up and tells you to stay right there, which you do, and you curl up on the couch and almost fall asleep again. Dave comes back and the two of you go back to your room now you guess. There’s light in it now, Dave put five big candles down on the floor and put some warm looking blankets down on the mattress you’d completely forgotten about. You feel a chill and the bed looks really nice all of a sudden. You’re still tired too. You look at Dave for permission to go lay down and he nods. You go lie down and fall asleep.

You wake to the door being violently slammed open and you know in a second its bro. You sit up and wait. He walks over to you and coos “You’ve been a good boy, huh?” you look at him and nod. You’re too intimidated to speak. Bro doesn’t like that and gives you a shock. “I said you will speak when spoken to.”

“Yes.” You manage to choke out.

“Yes what?” He says

“Yes… sir?” You try, because you really don’t know what he wants you to call him.

“That’s better.” He squats down and pats you on the head. “Good boy. Too bad I’m not in a good mood.” He says and you know this won’t end well. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one. He keeps the lighter lit though and you wonder what he’s doing. Then it occurs to you that he’s going to give you a smiley. You start backing up toward to wall. That earns you a shock. You yelp and fall over sideways. He one-handedly pulls your shirt off and over your head so it’s tangled on your chains. You’re sitting up now. Bro gets right in your face, he’s only a couple inches away, and he blows smoke into your face. You try not to cough and fail. Then he puts the head of the lighter to your skin on your shoulder. You scream. He slaps you and tells you to shut up. You whimper. He finishes his cigarette but instead of putting it out on the floor he decides you make a better ashtray. Another burn, on your other shoulder. You feel tears welling up in your eyes. You choke down the scream that threatens to leave your mouth when he burns you. He lights the lighter again. All you can do is wait for him to burn you. You can’t go anywhere and there’s no one to save you.

The next several hours are full of burns and shocks and beatings. Your body is littered with burns and cuts and bruises. You think he makes it a point not to bruise your face too badly. Maybe it’s so Dave doesn’t notice right away. It doesn’t matter though. You only have a tee shirt and shorts. He’s going to notice the bruises on your arms.

You end up passing out on the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

When you wake you’re alone. You’re glad you’re alone. You don’t want to see anyone right now. But the isolation doesn’t last long. Dave comes in the room with what looks like food. You just lay on the bed. You don’t want to try moving, you know it will hurt. Dave comes over and sets the food on the floor beside the mattress. He helps you sit up, and notices all the bruises in the process. You wince when you try to move your arms. Your shoulders still hurt. Dave must notice because he feeds you so you don’t have to move your arms. You feel embarrassed by him feeding you but you don’t say anything. You’ve barely said two words since you got here.

“Let me clean you up.” It isn’t as much of a request as him telling you he’s going to clean you up. He helps you to your feet but as soon as he lets go you almost fall back down. You would’ve had Dave not grabbed you. He decides to carry you on his back. While on your way to wherever you were going to try to remember if Bro actually did anything to your legs or if it’s just stress building up.

You go out into the hallway and you assume that the apartment building is abandoned. He wouldn’t walk out into the hallway so casually if it wasn’t. You go two apartments down the hall but stop in front of the door. Dave tells you to close your eyes. You do, at first. When he opens the door and the stench of rotting hits your nose you open your eyes. You gag at first. But then you look around more. There are body parts all over the floor, in different stages of decomposing. There are even animals in jars on shelves.

Dave takes you to the bathroom and sets you down on the counter. The bathroom is actually a fair size. There is counter all along one wall. You assume other than first aid this bathroom isn’t actually that good for anything because it’s all torn apart. There’s nothing else in there but it looks like the walls have taken a fair beating. Dave opens up the medicine cabinet and sets out some alcohol wipes, bandages, and some clear gel looking stuff.

He takes off your shirt and starts wiping some of the cuts with the alcohol wipes. You wince and try not to flinch. You end up flinching anyway. When he’s done cleaning and bandaging the cuts he starts putting the gel on your burns. You’re not exactly sure what it’s supposed to do but it feels cool on your skin. It still hurts a little bit though, but not as much as cleaning the cuts did.

Dave picks you up on his back again, he tells you to close your eyes before you leave the bathroom. You don’t. Instead you ask him to stop and walk over to the jars of dead animals so you can look at them. He’s surprised you want to see them and that you haven’t thrown up yet from just the smell and looking around. He sets you down on a clear patch of floor and gives you some jars to look at.

“What do you think?” he asks. You look at them for a second before answering. “They remind me of the animals I used to kill when I was little. I didn’t know it was wrong. My dad caught me one day though and scolded me for it. I never did it again after that.” He looks even more surprised. He kicks the body parts away in a spot next to you and sits down. “You know, that’s the most you’ve said in one go since you got here.” He says. “Yeah well, maybe there’s a reason for that.” You reply. “Maybe I don’t want to be here. Maybe I’m afraid if I say the wrong thing I’ll be beaten. And it doesn’t even matter if I say something wrong because I’ll be beaten anyway.”

He looks hurt. Or at least you think he does. It’s hard to tell through his shades. You continue looking at the animals in the jars. There’s a squirrel, a chipmunk and various other animals you can’t think of the names of. You want to dissect them. You want to see what they look like on the inside. You look at Dave; he’s watching you look at the creatures.

You decide to ask, just to see if he will.

“Would you… bring me a squirrel? A live one?”

“I can, what do you want it for though?”

You think he knows what you want it for, and that he’s just asking to see if he’s right. He is.

“I want to look at its insides.” Dave doesn’t look surprised anymore, instead he just looks interested.

“Yeah. I’ll get one. Just for you.” He looks happy that you’re taking an interest in something he’s interested in. For the first time that you’ve been here, you smile. And then Dave hugs you. He scares you when he does it and you almost scream. You manage not to though. But you don’t relax in his arms either. You still don’t trust him that much. He releases you after a minute.

You almost jump out of your skin when you hear Bro talk behind you. “Well, well, well,” He starts, “looks like somethin’s having a good day. Too bad I might have to ruin it.” He smirks. You shut your eyes tightly and wait for him to grab you.

“Not today, Bro.” Dave says. You open your eyes and look at him. Did he mean it? Could he really stop Bro?

You flinch when Bro slaps Dave across the face. You shut your eyes and sit still again, bracing yourself, but the pain never comes. You hear Bro’s footsteps trail off toward to hallway. You let out the breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

Dave watches Bro leave, then looks over at you and smiles.

“Hey, don’t cry.” His smile fades. You didn’t realize you started crying. You’re scared. You really are. You’re scared and you want to go home but you know there’s no way you’d ever be able to escape from here. But after what just happened you think you want to hang around Dave more, if it saves you from Bro.

You sob and he reaches toward you, you don’t flinch away this time. He wipes your tears from your cheeks. You manage to stop crying and you both just kind of sit there for a while, in silence.

“What if I went to get you a squirrel now? You can stay in here till I got back.” You look at the jars, then to Dave. “I’d like that.” You murmur. He ruffles your hair as he gets up. He isn’t as scary as he used to be. As he was minutes ago. But you still refuse to let your guard down completely. You know the only reason he isn’t as scary now is because he told bro not to touch you. For today, anyway.

Dave gets up to go and he looks at you for a minute, probably wondering if he should tie you down somewhere. “I can’t walk anyway.” You tell him. He nods, and walks over to the door. You hear the door click locked and his footsteps disappear.

You look down to the jars and smile. You pick one up of a little chipmunk and hold it up to the artificial light and smile. You can’t wait to get that squirrel.


	4. Chapter 4

For the next forty minutes or so you inspect some of the jars of animals that Dave put in front of you to look at. You think the salamander looks the neatest.

 

You eventually hear the door unlock again and look over to see Dave holding a box. The box is moving quite a bit and Dave looks like he’s having a little difficulty holding it. You can tell he’s trying not to show it though. 

He puts the box down in front of you. It’s a plain cardboard box. There’s tape on the top though, to keep it closed temporarily. You ask Dave for a knife or something.

After you kill it you take a moment to think about how to open it up, whether or not you should do it carefully. While you think you cut its tail off and put it off to the side for later. You decide that, yes, you should probably be at least somewhat careful. So you go through the process of cutting it open down the middle of the chest. You cut away the skin and fur that are in the way of your view of the organs. You ask Dave where you should put the stuff you don’t want. He just says on the floor somewhere, not like it could get any dirtier. Dave stays beside you intently watching you cut away skin and fur and take out organs and lay them neatly aside. You eventually decide that yes, you are going to have to cut through the ribs to get to the heart. And you do. You put aside the heart with the rest of the things you cut out and toss the rest of it off to the side. You’re the most concerned about looking at the heart, because it’s so small. You ask Dave if he could preserve the things you pulled out, and he says yes.

After that Dave takes you back to your room and you just kind of lay there. Thinking. Oh my god did I really just do that why did I do that what even came over me ohmygodohmygodohmygod. It’s like you just snapped back to normal and you’re scared because what if you want to do it again? It’s against the law to kill animals just because. You’ve just broken the law. You are terrified, because there still is that little part of you thinking ‘so what. It’s not like you’re gonna get caught here anyway. Let’s do it again.’ And you think that’s what terrifies you the most.

You end up falling asleep again, exhausted by your thoughts. In the morning you find a couple jars full of multiple organs. But you find the tail on a keychain like thing, and the heart on a necklace. It’s a fairly long chain when you put it on. You take it off again and lay down and look at it. You pull a candle closer to you so you can look at it better. It’s in a cube of clear plastic or resin or whatever it is, like the bugs you remember seeing in stores. It has a closed hook coming out of the top that attached to the chain. Chains. You’d think he’d put it on something else, like a string. You have enough chains on you. You’d gotten used to them though. You don’t hear them rattle that much anymore. They’re just background noise. They do still get uncomfortable though.

You lay on the bed intently studying the heart until the door opens.


	5. Chapter 5

Your stomach drops when you realize its Bro.

And he has something. When you move and sit up you realize oh god it’s a person. Ohgodohgodohgod.

“If you’re gonna be killing things under my roof they’re gonna be people.” And with that he shoves the person to the floor in the middle of the room. He lays face down on the floor unmoving. It’s a boy. He’s a boy. He’s your age. You can’t do this you can’t its different this is a person. This is a kid.

“I… I can’t. I can’t.” you manage to squeak out. “I didn’t think so.” And with that he raises his katana and puts it through the kid’s chest. Right in front of you.

You just look at the kid in shock. You watch Bro pull out the katana, blood pooling on the floor. You look up at Bro and before you know it the katana is at your neck and you feel liquid running down your neck in droplets but you’re too in shock to feel any pain.

“You’re gonna be a good little bitch and do as you’re told. And when I tell you to kill someone you fuckin’ do it. If Dave’s so insistent on keepin’ you alive you can at least be useful.” He pulls the katana away but not without making sure you have a nice cut without any severe damage. Your collar catches a bit of blood but you can still feel it running down your chest and soaking into your shirt. Bro is still standing in front of you. Watching you. You’re pretty sure he is anyway. He always wears those shades.

He reaches down and grabs a fistful of your hair. He pulls your head to one side violently and bites down on your neck and you can feel that and it fucking hurts but you don’t dare say anything because you don’t know what he’ll do if you do and you don’t want to know.

It feels like he’s biting a chunk out of your neck and it hurts and then his hands are on you and you can’t move and where’s Dave? Why isn’t he coming to save you?

Bro is touching you and you can’t do anything and you just sit there and you can feel the cut on your neck and you can feel the bite and Bro finally lets go of your neck and you can feel blood trickle from that too.

You try to block everything out but you can’t you can feel his hands on you and no what is he doing and you start crying and you can’t do anything and where is Dave?

You make the mistake of trying to shove him off but you can’t move him at all and then the slaps you.

“This is your fault. I told you to do somethin’ and you didn’t.” he says sternly and you whimper and close your eyes.

You lose track of time and you don’t know what’s happening anymore and you just give up.

But then Dave is there and then you’re out cold. You don’t know how long you’re out for but when you wake up you hurt. You hurt a lot. You turn your head to look at the door and sure enough it’s closed. You also notice that the kid is no longer there but his blood is still on the floor. You imagine it’ll stay there. You don’t try to get up. You just lay on the mattress and cry. And wonder why you’re here.

The door opens some time after and you don’t bother to look. You stare at the ceiling. You stopped crying a while ago. Now you’re just angry. It turns out its just Dave anyway. You finally turn your head to look at him and the cut on your neck stretches a little bit and you wince. He’s just looking at you. You can’t tell where he’s looking at you though. Whether it’s at your face, or the cuts Bro left you with.

“Wanna get cleaned up?” he finally asks, and you slightly nod. He helps you up to a sitting position and wow you hurt more than you did lying down. He picks you up on his back again and you head off to the same room Dave took you to clean you up last time.

He cleans and bandages your wounds and when you’re about to go back to your room you’re stopped by an expressionless Bro. He has another kid. He looks at Dave and a silent agreement happens. You don’t know what they agreed on but Bro drops the kid on the bloody floor and then looks at you.

“You’re not leaving this room until this kid is dead.” You gape at him. You couldn’t do it last time what makes him think you can do it this time? You don’t really have a choice though. You don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.

You’re standing on your own but it hurts a lot. You didn’t let Dave pick you up again when he was done fixing you up. Moving around is going to hurt a lot. You will have to move around if this kid wakes up before you can kill him. And frankly you don’t know if you can.

“Can I have a hammer?” you hesitantly ask. Bro raises an eyebrow at you but goes out the door and you assume it’s to get you one.

“I’m sorry. I can’t stop him this time. You have to do it.” You aren’t surprised but this isn’t going to be easy either.

To be honest, you’re terrified. This is different from the squirrel. This is a person.

“It’s not that different.” Bro holds the hammer out for you. How did he know that’s what you were thinking about?

“Think of it as a giant squirrel.” Dave suggests and you almost laugh at the absurdity of it. You take the hammer from Bro. You just stare at the kid for a while. But then he starts to move.

“Have fun doin’ it while he’s awake.” Bro says. He stalks off to lean against a wall and watch you. Dave does the same. You let out a shaky breath and raise your hammer.

The kid looks at you as you swing it down and he looks terrified and you probably look the same.

The hammer connects with his head.

You feel drops on your face and you don’t have to guess what it is.

You let go of the hammer and fall on your ass. It stings pretty badly but you’re not paying attention to that. You’re still looking at the kid.

He had blue eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

He actually did it.

You have to say you’re surprised. You didn’t think he had it in him. Animals and people are two different things after all.

You smirk at that thought. They aren’t different at all.

He passes out after he does it and you wonder if Bro went out of his way to get a kid that looked like him.

Probably.

You carry him back to his room and then head off to your own. You really like this kid. And you guess you’ll support Bro’s want to use him in business if it keeps Bro from killing him. You’ll just have to teach him to stay conscious once the job’s done.

You love him. Really. He’d be dead by now if you didn’t.

You sit down at your turntables and start mixing. Thinking. Where to start? You have to start with the basics, you guess. You smirk. Step one, killing the person. Step two, getting the fuck out of there.

That was about all there really was to it, when it came down to it. You suppose “don’t be seen” should be in there too though.

It is at that point in your train of thought a sword whizzes by your head and into your wall.

Bro.

And he wants to strife.

You pluck the note off the handle of the sword because Bro would have been gone before the sword even hit the wall.

It reads:

 

ROOF.

FIVE MINUTES.

BRING A SWORD.

 

You are not particularly in the mood for it but you really don’t have a choice on the matter.

You grab your sword and start trudging up the stairs. He’s either in a good mood or a bad mood and either way you’re fucked. The most you ever manage to land on him is maybe a couple scratches if that. Even when he’s an old man you think you could probably never beat him in a fight.

You get to the roof and immediately take your stance. You don’t see Bro but that doesn’t matter. You regret standing in front of the door when some kunai are thrown your way. You only manage to block two before you’re pinned to the wooden door by your clothes, and some skin. He managed to catch your arm with one. The other ones just got your clothes. Lucky day.

“I thought I taught you better, kid.” And he looks genuinely unimpressed. Anyone else wouldn’t know that though. Only striders can tell. And as much as you hate to admit, you can’t hold your poker face as well as Bro can.

“We’re usin’ your little pet for business and that’s all there is to it.” You’re a bit surprised he’s actually talking, but hey, that’s better than getting three more gashes on you somewhere.

“Okay.”

“I don’t care what you have to say about it ‘cause that’s what’s happening.”

“I said okay. I know. If he’s gonna be killing anyway it might as well be killing people.”

“Well it’s good you understand then. I woulda beat your ass if you didn’t. I’ll grab a couple more next time I’m on a run.”

“Okay. I’ll take him to the room again just before you get back.” You know when he goes out, and when he gets back. You also know you’re gonna have to calm John down when he wakes up, if he hasn’t already. You suppose it doesn’t really matter, because he’ll freak out one way or another.

Bro absconds and you realize you’re still stuck to the door.

“God damn it, Bro!”

You spend a good fifteen minutes trying to get the kunai out of the door when you give up and jerk yourself out, ripping your shirt, and opening the cut on your arm even more. You’d wanted to avoid doing that so you wouldn’t have to tend to your arm more than it already needed.

 

You tend to your arm and proceed to mix some more beats, deciding that John is probably better off trying to sort things out for himself first. That is a complete lie, but you don’t want to see him if he’s crying or anything. You’d get mad, and you might want to back out of your deal with Bro, which you know full well can’t happen for the only reason of he’d murder the both of you. Or at least John. And you love John, so that can’t happen. You spent all that time getting to know him and if Bro killed him it’d all be for waste. Minding that you were actually supposed to kill him in the first place, it wouldn’t be much of a loss to Bro. Not like it would have been a loss to him anyway. To Bro all John is, is some pet, a toy.

You continue thinking and mixing and lose track of time. At least until Bro shows up beside you. Fresh blood all over him. You’re a little confused when you realize he’s already back. You never lose track of time like that. You’re usually right on time, to the second. But now isn’t the time to think about that. You have to go get John. And hope he’s calmed himself down. Bro won’t let you try to talk to him now that he’s here, you know that.

You head to John’s room and hope for the best.


	7. Chapter 7

You sleep for a long time.   
You want to keep sleeping.   
You don’t want to wake up.   
So you dream.   
You dream of home, of your dad but then it twists to red and black and crust. It disappears and you’re alone. In black. In nothing.   
Then you’re on the mattress. Then candles light. One by one.   
And then Bro is there and he’s smiling. A gross huge smile, Cheshire smile. Razor sharp, long teeth. Then he starts to melt.   
And you’re running. You don’t know why, but you are. You have to run.   
But then you see those eyes. Those eyes just like yours. And they’re just staring at you. Wide. Scared. And you start laughing. And you start crying.   
You wake up crying and Dave is there. Dave is there and you grab him and you cry. But Bro grabs you and pulls you away from him and you almost scream but catch yourself just before you do. You know what happens when you cross Bro and you don’t want that to happen now. Not right now.   
“John. John, you’re okay. You’re okay.” Dave tries to calm you and it works. You slowly calm yourself down. But you don’t calm down soon enough to realize they’re taking you back to that room.   
You know crying isn’t going to help you at all but you can’t make they tears stop. You try. You really do but they won’t stop. And what scares you the most is that you know. You know. That you’ll do it again. Maybe it won’t be because you want to, and maybe it will. You don’t know and that scares you too.   
You don’t know anything and that scares you.   
But you know that you’re in that room.   
And you know what comes next.   
And it’s sort of sad that its only happened once and you know it’s going to happen again. And there is nothing you can do to stop it. You’re trapped here.   
And you’re beginning to wonder if you don’t actually mind.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot  
> i try to post shorter chapters everyother day/every 3 days  
> also when i published this i already had 7 chapters done  
> yes though keep reading you are great

Bro holds the hammer out to you. You just look at him. Stare. You know you can't do it. At least that's what you want to think.  
The more you tell yourself something the truer it gets.  
Sometimes you wonder if that's true.  
You take the hammer. Before he decides he's had enough of you and decides to take things into his own hands. You're not sure if Dave would be able to stop him.  
But there's more this time. He brought more people. He moves you to stand in front of another boy. You decide to find a place. A place in your head to go to when you have to do this. Cause you're guessing that its going to be happening a lot.  
You try but the plan halts when you swing down the hammer.  
You watch another one die by your hands.  
You don’t pass out this time, but you do stare in absolute horror. All you can see is red, and you’re pretty sure you’re crying.  
You know they’re waiting for you to get on with it, but your mind is racing and trying to rationalize what you just did. You end up telling yourself that it’s no different than the squirrell, that they’re just bigger.  
And require more force.  
And aren’t squirrells at all but here goes-  
Three.  
You can’t see at all by this point. Your tears blurring your sight. Bro has mercy and gives you a break. He doesn’t, however, leave the other person for you to off later. He slices him open right in front of you. Dave grabs you and pulls you into a hug. He shooshes you and tells you everything will be okay. You just cry into him.  
You used to be so sure that you’d never be able to kill a person. But now it’s kill or be killed. You can’t decide whether or not you want to be killed. But you know Bro would be the one to do it and you know it wouldn’t be as fast as he killed the person in front of you. You decide it’s probably going to be easier to kill people and live, than let Bro have his way with you and die. You’d say it was a hard decision but you’re finally starting to go numb.  
And then you start feeling physically numb. Your arms and legs start tingling, and you feel yourself slipping from consciousness.  
You fall asleep in Dave’s arms.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaha opps delay  
> there was somethioh yeah  
> i can't dave  
> i'm sorry  
> edit:  
> okay so obviously i cant keep to the i'm gonna update like every two days  
> and i also am kind busy lately cause i'm organizing my hs groups own skaia ball so between making decorations for that, making my cosplay and watching my brother i dont have the most time to update

He's doing well. Better than you thought he'd do anyway.  
He's been excelling at his technique. Perfecting it. You have to say you're a bit surprised. You're not quite sure how he manages to do it so quietly. With a hammer.  
Of all the things he could have picked it was the goddamn hammer. He even named the thing. The warhammer of Zillyhoo. You suppose that's probably him trying to make it seem better.  
You think you're growing on him. He isn't so scared around you. He isn't as scared as Bro, but he still is.  
You let him wander around the building whenever he wants. You just watch. Intently. You always watch him. You watch how his hair moves when he walks. And how it's getting long. It's just past his jaw. It's unruly and black and sort of wavy. You watch his eyes. And how all emotion seems to drain out of them when it's time for training. Once you brought home a movie for him to watch. You stole it, obviously. But you didn't expect his eyes to light up the way they did when he saw it. He said it was his favourite. Con Air. You hadn't seen it before. When you did though, it was incredibly shitty.  
"That was so unironically shitty."  
"It was not! It is a cinematic masterpiece."  
He also talks to you with ease now. But you know sometimes its forced and he's still afraid that you might snap and become like Bro. But Bro doesn't bother him as often anymore and you think it's because he's finally proving useful.  
You're also pretty sure that he's planning on taking him outside soon to see what he's really learned.  
You search the building for another movie. Any movie. You end up finding a romcom and wonder how the fuck it got in here cause you're pretty sure it's not something Bro would watch and you don't remember picking it up.  
You put it on and sometime during the course of the movie John falls asleep on you.ck You tense up a bit because holy shit this is new. No, Striders are supposed to be cool. And get all the chicks.  
Shitshitshit  
You were so lacking in this category it wasn't funny.  
You just want to hold him.  
You want him to love you like you love him.  
You inwardly scold yourself. You are not a bishojo waiting for senpai to notice you. He stirs and you tense again. You were so lost in your thoughts that the movie was already over and the credits were rolling up the screen. John sits up and rubs his eyes. You glance out the window. It's already dark.  
Bro walks in.  
"Time for your first real shot kid. Get ready." You and Bro exchange glances. You nod. Bro leaves.  
You take John up to your room and give him some professional looking clothes. White pants. That's the Strider signature. A black dress shirt along with a red tie and vest. You dress similarly.  
You know he's nervous. It's going to be the first time he's gone outside since you brought him here. He's watching you. He’s probably waiting for you to tell him what’s okay and what isn’t.  
He’s so visibly nervous it’s incredible. He’s got a lot to work on if he wants to be a Strider.  
You decide that,  
Maybe...  
It would be okay if you just...  
Leaned in a little more...  
You’re so close to him you can feel his warmth.  
You can see his blue eyes through your shades and his glasses. He’s looking up at you. Waiting. You both know what you want to do. You’re waiting for him to say no. Something, to stop you. So that he isn’t going along with it because he as to.  
Your thoughts cut short when he gets impatient and closes the distance.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry it took so long i am a horrible updater person writer  
> i'm probably gonna update like once a week from now on just because i cant stick to my word of every two days and i am actually busy for the next couple weeks getting ready for my citys hs groups meetup as i am an importnat group person oranginzer thing   
> ANYWAY  
> i still can't dave but i tried

You’re both surprised and happy that John doesn’t try to run when you go outside.  
He does, however, hesitate when it’s time to get the job done.  
Bro almost takes the both of them out.  
You decide that the next thing you have to teach him is stealth. The guy heard you coming because John wasn’t quiet enough.  
You also kicked yourself because it was something you should have known to teach him anyway.  
But you’re somewhat distracted. You’re still thinking about earlier. Before you left.   
Did he really do that because he wanted it, or because he knew you did? You know it could also be because he got whisked up in the Strider charm and just couldn’t say no. The Strider charm is everything. You’d say it’s gotten you lots of ladies but it really hasn’t. now that you think about it, you look old enough to get into a bar.   
Maybe you should get one of Bro’s connections to get you a fake ID.   
Of course, the only reason you’d go to a bar to get ladies, is so you could turn them down. You just like the feeling of knowing you could get someone if you really wanted to. But right now you don’t need anyone, you already have John. He’s all you need. You consider asking Bro to buy you some booze though.   
But then you think about John’s fuck up earlier and think twice about it.  
Bro probably isn’t in a very good mood.   
He shouldn’t be very surprised about it though, considering it was his first time at the real thing.   
But he also managed to get his white pants dirty, and you can imagine Bro isn’t too happy about that either.  
You’ll have to teach him to make less of a mess. Striders never get their pants dirty.

When you get back to the building you decide to reward him with a movie. You can guess which one he picked.   
“This one? Really, bro?”  
“It is a masterpiece and you know it. You just refuse to see it.”  
“No, the movie is shit.”  
“Shut up. We’re watching it.”  
“Fine.”

John always looks so alert when watching his movies. Sometimes he even says the words along with the characters.   
You will admit that it’s cute. 

When the credits start rolling at the end of the movie you get up to find another one. You’ve accumulated quite a large collection of shoplifted movies over the course of the year.   
You pick one that isn’t complete shit. 

Part way through the movie John rests his head on your shoulder and your immediate thought is ‘why isn’t he paying attention to the movie? He’s usually so into them.’  
But then it hits you and you lean your head on his.  
And you are not blushing. Striders don’t blush.  
you spend the rest of the movie leaning on each other.

When the movie is done you go to the kitchen to get drinks but when you turn around John is right there and you did not jump in surprise. Striders do not jump in surprise.  
Before you even manage to get a word out of your mouth his lips are on yours and you guess that answers your question.


	11. Chapter 11

You move your arms up to snake through his hair. You've been admiring his nearly-white locks for a while now. You've been admiring his everything for a while now.   
Once you figured out what it was that was making you admire him so much you honestly didn't really know what to do. You figure you did well hiding it though.  
You were just kind of waiting till you figured everything out for yourself. You already knew how Dave felt, and honestly you were sort of surprised he kept his hands to himself all this time.   
He could have had you any time he wanted, it's not like you really could have said no.  
But now you were kissing him, and he was backing you up till you were pinned against the counter.   
His hands in your hair and on your back. And you really don't know where to go from here.   
You pull back to breathe and you rest your foreheads together.   
You just kind of smile sheepishly at him.  
"I love you." He says.  
"I know."

You two don't do anything more after that, and the next day it's back to training. Only now it's stealth training, and attempting to not make a mess with your hammer.   
You have a place now, that you go to, so you just shut everything off while training and doing jobs. Dave tells you your eyes look dull when you kill. He says your eyes are the bluest eyes he's ever seen. And then it occurs to you that, in all this time, you've never seen his eyes. So you set out on a mission to find out.

You watch movies that night like every other night. And it's nice that Dave can leave you here almost all day and Bro almost never bothers you. But he still has his bad days. And he still takes them out on you.  
But now isn't the time to think about that. You have a mission tonight. You guess that because he's never taken his shades off in front of you, he probably won't want to do it now, and you're going to have to take them off for him.   
So you wait till the credits are rolling and he asks you if you want to watch another one. You say sure, and wait for him to come back over to you.  
As soon as he's sitting down you put your hand on his cheek and turn is head toward you. You kiss him, slowly at first, and you move your hands to his hair. Slowly you bring your hands forward, but when he realizes what you're doing he jerks back.  
"Daaaaaaaave." you whine. "Please. I've never seen them. You see mine all the time."  
He hesitates, but doesn't move when you reach up to grab the shades the second time.

You have never seen eyes like that.  
They're beautiful.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHAHA I'M ON A SPREE  
> this chapter was actually longer but i split it cause i dont post long chapters i post short ones cause i suck and i fuckin love cliffhangers  
> questions can b e directed to my tumblr creamsiclesteam.tumblr.com  
> i feel evil for this cliffhanger  
> but i am in a GR8 MOOD   
> so yeah   
> ANYWAY

They're bright red. 

"Wow."  
You study his eyes for what feels like a long time.  
You can tell he feels uneasy though, he's probably always had his shades, so he probably isn't used to people looking right at him.   
"They're great. I've never seen eyes like yours before." You smile and hand him back the shades, which he promptly puts back on his face.   
You'd half hoped he'd leave them off.

 

\-------

 

 

Time passes and before you know it, they're letting you run errands. Going to the store and such. You all know that you won't try to run away. Dave draws up an incredibly shitty map for you so you know where the stores are. He also labels places you should avoid going. He tells you to never take the same route more than you have to. 

You've also almost mastered stealthiness to the Strider standard. You still mess up on occasion. You also make little to no mess when carrying out the act. You have motivation to not dirty your pants. If you get even the smallest spot on them Bro will beat you. 

But one day your whole world comes crashing down.  
Someone recognizes you.  
You don't know who and you don't know how.  
You don't even look the same as you did when you "died".  
You're taller, so is Dave and you're beginning to think you will never be taller, you're thinner, you're more built, and this fine morning you didn't have it in you to shave.  
You don't know what to do.  
You freeze.  
It's only for a second but you think it's long enough that they noticed.  
Your heart is pounding.  
You turn around.  
"I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" You say, hoping to god that you can save yourself.   
You look down at her. She's a good four or five inches shorter than you, and wow, she looks like you. You'd have to guess you two were probably related.   
She has long black hair and big round glasses. You can't remember her though.   
"Oh, Sorry, I guess I thought you were someone else." She says.  
"I guess I just have one of those faces." You joke.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i was gonna wait to post this but then i just couldn't

You know she follows you when you leave. You continue to spend the next three hours sitting in a tree waiting for Dave. You two had made the plan that if something happened and you couldn't make it back to the building, you'd sit in the big willow tree by the river. It wasn't a long walk from the store to the river, but you had ditched everything but a bottle of water and a small snack on the way. You were glad that you had only gone to the store to buy snacks in the first place. Not that it would have mattered anyway. The Striders were loaded.  
Dave climbs up when he gets there.   
"You didn't come back, what’s up?"  
"She recognized me." You nod slightly in her direction. You thought maybe she'd leave after a while, but she's stubborn. She's been sitting at a picnic table for the whole time. You angled yourself in the tree so that you could see her but she couldn't really see you. You didn't want her taking pictures.  
"Shit. Did you push it off?"   
"Obviously."  
"Let's go." He jumps down from the tree, and you're always impressed at how he knows how to land without hurting his feet. He's like a cat.   
You climb down and follow him. When you guys are walking, in the opposite direction of the building, you joke around and act like you're having a good time. You're both aware that she's still following. Far enough behind that a normal person wouldn't notice, but you and Dave were far from normal people.   
You don't know where Dave is taking you but you trust him.   
And soon enough you're walking up the stairs to a fairly normal looking house and you have to say you are slightly concerned.   
A man opens the door before Dave knocks. He's also fairly tall. He’s well built, but at the same time doesn’t look like he could hold his own in a fight against Bro. He has dark hair and forest green eyes.   
“Hey! Where’ve you been, mate?” And suddenly you understand what Dave is doing.  
“I just got caught up hanging out with him.” You reply.   
“Ah, better get in here, then. It’s getting late.”   
You nod to Dave and he turns to leave.  
You go inside.   
Once securely inside, you let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.  
“My name’s Jake.”  
“John.”  
“I know, I’ve heard all about you.”  
He proceeds to tell you what he thinks is going to happen. You’ll probably be staying there for a couple days, and he’s going to have people find out all they can on the girl that was following you.   
As nice a place as Jake’s is, you still want to get back to the building. You share a room with Dave now. You like it.  
You still wear the collar bro gave you, well, not the same collar. He gave you a new one, you’re not sure how long ago. Dave has always been better at keeping track of time than you, so you don’t bother really trying.   
It goes with your style though, so no one ever questions it when you’re out and about.You wear brightly coloured or black skinny jeans, with studded belts or suspenders. Dark t-shirts or shirts with printed sayings. Dave dresses somewhat similar. Your hair is close to your shoulders and you’re really considering a haircut.   
Dave does your hair up in the old fashioned ways, like the wigs stereotypical judges wear when you guys need a laugh.   
Jake tells you Dirk will be by later with some clothes, and you realize you don’t know who he’s talking about.  
You hadn’t considered the fact that Bro actually had a name.  
You talk with Jake and quickly learn that you share a love of movies.   
after a while you find out that Jake and Bro used to date, but Jake couldn’t deal with him. 

“How do you do it, kid?” He asks, in relation to dealing with the Striders.  
“You get used to it after a while.” You reply. 

Jake shows you to the guest room after a while more of conversation, and you lay there thinking for a while before you fall asleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kind of forced this chapter out, so it doesn't feel like i wrote it as well as the other ones. it feels sort of clichey too? idfk   
> anyway yes continue

When you wake up in the morning Jake is waiting for you in the living room.  
He tells you Dave will be there soon.   
And even after all the time you’ve been with Dave you did not expect him to get in through the back window. 

Jake then proceeds to inform the two of you, that the girl is in fact your sister by the name of Jade.   
You are totally and completely shocked.   
“Dave... Did you know I had a sister?”   
“No idea.”  
Jake then continues to tell you that she lived with her grandfather for the majority of her young life. He says she was just passing through town but after some digging he found out she’s here all week.   
“And you found all of that out overnight?”  
“When you know the right lads and have the right fire power, anything is possible.” He then proceeds to pull a gun out of nowhere and wave it around a little before putting it away again. 

Jake goes out for work and leaves you and Dave at the house. It feels incredibly weird to be in a normal house. It smells like air freshener, instead of corpses and rotting flesh. It was clean, too. And there were no puppets or smuppets laying around. Now that you thought about it... you kind of forgot what a normal house was like.   
You and Dave decide to watch movies and of course Dave complains and comments through the whole thing about how shitty it is and you can’t help but smile.  
“I love you.” You say as you rest your head on his shoulder.  
He tenses for a second, probably surprised. It’s the first time you’ve said it to him. He tells you he loves you all the time but you had only ever said “i know”.  
“I love you too.” He says, and moves to pull you into a kiss.   
You’re interrupted when the doorbell rings.   
You’re suddenly incredibly glad the living room is on the far side of the house, and Jake has thick curtains on all of the windows.   
“Jake didn’t say he was expecting anyone.” Dave mutters under his breath, like he’s reminding himself. “Stay here.”   
You stay put, and wait with your hand on your hammer, just in case.   
Dave doesn’t look happy when he comes back.   
“It was her.” He tells you.   
“What do we do? She seems dead set on proving it’s me.”  
“That’s the thing. You’re supposed to be dead. If someone finds you and you’re not dead, someone else is going to go after you.”   
“I know. I can protect myself now too though. You taught me how.”  
“Still, you need to be careful from now on.”

You two end up going for a walk later on because you can’t sit still with all thats going on.   
That turns out to be a bad idea when Jade “runs into you” at the park. Literally. She pretends to accidentally bump into you.   
“I remember you!” She sounds so cheerful, and it feels weird, you’re not used to that kind of attitude towards things.  
“Yeah, you’re that chick from the store.” You reply, trying to make the annoyance obvious, but at the same time not too obvious.   
“You never told me you met a chick. What do you even need chicks for when you got me, bro?” Dave slings an arm over your shoulder in a slightly protective manner.  
“I guess I just didn’t think it was important.” You reply. Now you’re trying to get rid of her. You had wanted to brush her off easily before, but you couldn’t do it. You had to get back to the building. Get back to normal.   
“Uh, look, We gotta get going. Places to be.” You tell her. You continue walking before she can say anything. Dave drops his arm from your shoulders.   
“As if I need women when I have you.” You hit his arm playfully. He grabs your hand and holds it. You hold hands all the way back to Jake’s house.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sew i completely forgot to mention that yes i tried my hardest to avoid writing jake because i can't write like jake talks  
> i

Eventually she has to leave, and you find out when she does right away.   
Dave doesn’t let you go back to the building for a couple days after she leaves, just to be safe. You get so happy when you can finally go home.

It takes a while for things to finally get back to normal, but when they do you’re glad. 

But one day, when you’re finally allowed to go out by yourself again, when you finally stop worrying, you get stopped by a police officer when you exit a store. Your heart sinks because you know this is it. You won’t be able to go to the tree by the river and wait for Dave.   
He asks you if you could go with him for a while, and your heart all but stops. You go, if only because if you ran he would probably arrest you for something. You also know that absolutely nothing can be traced back to you, so in that case, you’re home free.   
You just have to survive the trip downtown.   
But when you get there and see Jade, and a man you almost don’t recognize, you’re afraid of what’s going to happen, and you know you’re on your own.   
You wished Dave had trained you in talking your way out of things.  
“Son?” The man says, in a disbelieving tone.   
_I can’t do this._  
“I knew it was you!” Jade exclaims.  
The shock must be all over your face.  
 _I can’t do this._  
The man wraps his arms around you, but you can’t push him away, you’re frozen.  
You can’t do anything.  
You can’t move.  
You can’t protest, tell him he’s got the wrong person, nothing.  
You can’t talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes yes  
> short  
> i know  
> i'm already working on the next one  
> it should be longer  
> also this fic should be done soon and it will be my first actually finished written anything


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHAHAHA   
> OMG  
> i feel like i did it really fast paced but like yeah   
> i couldnt really do it any other way? i dunno  
> but wow this is the first thing i've ever finished hahaha wow

Before you know it, you’re in a house. A house you don’t recognize.  
In a room you don’t recognize.   
In a city, you can barely remember.

You start calming down.   
You start trying to think. Trying to remember. You were in texas with Dave, but where did you live before that?  
 _No!_  
You’re hours and hours away from Dave.   
Now you have to calm down even more, and try to think of something that will catch their attention.  
So obviously in your mind set the only rational thing is to do a job no one asked you to do. And leave him out for someone to find. If dave hears about it, he’ll know where you are. He’d never mistake the way you do it.   
So once the man and Jade are asleep, you head out.

Instead of coming out of your kill place, you stay there. In the current situation, you’ll be able to think better that way. But all you really had to think about now was the wait. 

You hole yourself up in whatever room you’re currently in. You’re not sure how long it is before you finally hear a knock at the window. And you are suddenly glad you are on the ground floor.   
You go to the window, cautiously of course, you can’t be too sure who it is, and when you open the curtain slightly you almost start crying.  
You immediately open the curtains and the window and fling yourself at the figure outside. His arms wrap around you and it’s all that you can do to not cry. Striders don’t cry.   
When you leave this time, You leave a note.

_GOODBYE._

_I’M NOT THE KID YOU’RE LOOKING FOR.  
HE’S LONG BEEN DEAD_

 

You know that man is your dad, and Jade is your sister, but you couldn’t stay here, you don’t know how to live like a normal person. You remembered a lot about your dad while you were waiting for Dave. You remembered he used to bake cakes all the time, and you hated it. You didn’t hate all cakes, You hated betty crocker cakes. And since your dad was incredibly important to the company that was all he ever made. You remembered You used to play jokes on each other, he taught you how to play the piano, and always left notes for you.   
So you figured you’d leave one for him.

 

On the way back to Texas you pick up several random jobs and enjoy the ride.   
You’ve almost perfected your method of taking out the target.   
Bro obviously brought you white pants. And you didn’t once get them dirty.   
Secretly, you think Bro has gotten used to you being around too. And you bring in more money when it’s three doing jobs instead of just two. 

When you finally get back home, you go straight to yours and Dave’s room, and fall onto the bed. Dave crawls in after you.   
“I missed you.” He tells you.  
“I missed you too.”  
He kisses you, and you lay in bed together in each others arms, and fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next thing is gonna be real short


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow the last chapter looked longer when i was writing it   
> anyway

You can’t help it now, you always get such a rush when the hammer hits their skull.   
When the life leaves them.

You always carry around the heart Dave gave to you.   
A reminder of how far you’ve come.

Dave says it been along time since you first got there. Years, you think he said.  
You wouldn’t change any of it.

Your name is John Strider, and you are a professional killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END


End file.
